MedPAC Meets
Last week the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission met in Washington, D.C. to discuss a number of Medicare payment issues. Among issues on MedPAC’s September agenda were: context for Medicare payment policy the effects of Medicare Advantage “spillover” on Medicare fee-for-service [...]
ACA Has Reduced Insurance Disparities
The Affordable Care Act is responsible for a major reduction in the disparity of insurance status among racial and ethnic minorities. According to a new Commonwealth Fund analysis, All U.S. racial and ethnic groups saw comparable, proportionate declines in uninsured [...]
Uninsured Rate Rose in 2017
The rate of uninsured Americans rose in 2017, the first such increase since implementation of the Affordable Care Act. According to a new Urban Institute study, The increasing uninsurance rate between 2016 and 2017 was driven by losses of private [...]
New Public Charge Rule Could Affect Immigrants, Providers
Legal immigrants may become reluctant to seek government-sponsored health care and providers may find themselves delivering more uncompensated care in the wake of the adoption of a new federal “public charge” regulation that seeks to define more narrowly the kinds [...]
CMS Introduces New Medicaid Opioid Management Guidelines
States must do more to monitor the prescription and use of opioids within their Medicaid programs, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services told them this week. In a formal guidance letter to state Medicaid programs issued as part of [...]
Can Medicare Feed its Way Out of Some Readmissions?
Feeding some Medicare patients after they are discharged from the hospital could reduce readmissions and save taxpayers millions, a new study has concluded. According to the new Bipartisan Policy Center report Next Steps in Chronic Care: Expanding Innovative Medicare Benefits, [...]
New Bill Would Address Social Determinants of Health
The federal government would provide funding to help address social determinants of health within Medicaid populations under a new bill introduced in the House of Representatives last week. According to a legislative summary prepared by one of the bipartisan bill’s [...]
ACA’s Medicaid Pay Bump Helped But Benefits Now Lost, Study Says
Health status and access to care improved for Medicaid patients when the Affordable Care Act mandated a temporary rate increase for physicians serving newly insured patients covered through that law’s Medicaid expansion. But when the mandate for increased physician payments [...]
Groups Seek to Block Medicaid Block Grants
Do not permit states to adopt block grants for their Medicaid programs, more than two dozen groups have asked the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. A letter signed by the American Diabetes Association, American Heart Association, COPD Foundation, March [...]
CMS Proposes Easing Medicaid Access Protections
States would have to do less to ensure access to Medicaid-covered services for their Medicaid population under a new regulation proposed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. In 2015, CMS required states to track their Medicaid fee-for-service payments [...]
